Hill’s team option picked up by Spurs

In what could go down as the least-surprising Spurs-related news story of the season, the team announced Wednesday it has exercised its fourth-year contract option on guard George Hill, locking him up through the 2011-12 campaign.

Hill, a favorite of coach Gregg Popovich, is slated to make $1.39 million next season, the final year of his original rookie-scale contract. It will likely be the last time he comes so cheap.

Selected out of IUPUI as the 26th overall pick in 2008, Hill is coming off a sophomore season in which his scoring average jumped nearly seven points to 12.4 per game. He shot a team-best 39.9 percent from 3-point range and was a runner-up to Houston’s Aaron Brooks for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

He entered that game 1 for 10 from 3-point range and 5 of 26 overall. By the end of the night, he’d gone 6 of 9 and 5 for 7 on 3-pointers, including a buzzer-beating heave from 28 feet to end the first half.

“I was very aware that I couldn’t make a shot in the previous five games, but I wasn’t worried,” Ginobili said. “In practice, I was shooting pretty well, so I knew it was going to turn around soon.”

Ginobili doesn’t make much of his breakout against the Thunder. He just hopes to continue his roll in tonight’s preseason finale against Houston.

“It was better than to start the season going 1 for 18,” Ginobili said.

Less rest for regulars: With tonight’s game representing the final tune-up before the season opens Oct. 27 against Indiana, Popovich says he plans to give his regulars something approaching a regular-season workload.

Against Oklahoma City, every starter but Tim Duncan logged at least 26 minutes.

“We’ll see how the game goes, how guys feel and what it looks like,” Popovich said.

Even so, Ginobili says, don’t expect the Spurs to be in regular-season form just yet.

“Traditionally, we are a team that builds during the season,” Ginobili said. “We’ve hardly ever started a season really strong and in playoff shape.

“I am always optimistic we can do good, but we are not going to see the best San Antonio in October and November.”

Slippery slope: After spending the offseason working tirelessly to extend his shooting range, center DeJuan Blair puts his confidence level in his outside shot at a 6 or 7.

“I’m going to keep working on it, and it’s going to be good,” Blair said.

Asked if perhaps he’d overstepped his limits when he fired up an airball from 20 feet against Oklahoma City, Blair chuckled.